Violence Italian Universities Renaissesance

Violence and Italian universities during the Renaissance
Author(s): Jonathan Davies

Source: Renaissance Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4, THE ITALIAN UNIVERSITY IN THE
RENAISSANCE (SEPTEMBER 2013), pp. 504-516
Published by: Wiley
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Renaissance Studies Vol. 27 No. 4 DOI: 10.1111/rest.l2027
Violence and Italian universities d

the Renaissance
Jonathan Davies
In 1478 Cicco Simonetta, the first secretary to the Duke of Milan, received an
anonymous letter regarding his nephew Bernardino, who was then studying
at the University of Pavia, the Studio pavese. According to the letter, within
only a few days Bernardino had raped a girl, had injured two citizens and
come to blows with a third following a discussion over a prostitute; he had
been masked and fully armed when he took part in the Carnival celebrations;
he had stolen young goats and wine from local peasants; he had stolen books
from another student; he had taken part in a brawl in a brothel; he had
stolen rings from a Sienese woman and had raped her a few days later; and
almost every night he had gone about armed, quarrelling with the customs
officers. The informer argued that Bernardino felt he could behave freely at
Pavia because of the status of his uncle. The only solution, according to the
informer, was to transfer Bernardino to another university, either at Bologna
or Turin.1
The outcome of these allegations is unknown though Bernardino later
became a vicar of the Archbishop of Milan.2 Nevertheless the case raises a
series of questions about violence at Italian universities between the fifteenth
and the seventeenth centuries. How frequent was it? What forms did it take?
What motivated it? What were the responses of the authorities? Examining
these issues increases our understanding of masculinity and academic, social,
and national identities in this period. It also throws some light on the nature
of justice in the Italian states. The present study is the first survey of violence
at Italian universities during the Renaissance and it should be stressed that it
is a preliminary analysis. More work needs to be done before a full picture
emerges.3
1 For the text of the letter, see Paolo Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche pavesi nella seconda metà del Quattro
cento', Bollettino délia Società Pavese di Storia Patria, 45 (1993), 37-66 (at 61-2).
2 For Bernardino's later career, see Cristina Belloni and Marco Lunari (eds.), I notai della curia arcivescovile di
Milano (secoli XTV-XV) (Rome: Ministero per i beni e le attivita' culturali, 2004), 48.
3 Topics for further investigation include: legislative provisions; petitions presented; specific punishments;
and contemporary stereotypes of 'the student' within plays, novelle, and model letter collections.
) 2013 The Author
Renaissance Studies © 2013 The Society for Renaissance Studies, John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Violence and Italian universities 505
LEVELS
Violence has always played a part in the development of universi

However, assessing the levels of violence involving students and profes
difficult. Until recently there was a consensus that university towns were
most lawless and turbulent places of the later Middle Ages but revisionists
begun to challenge this picture, arguing that, 'we need to recogni
picture of student excess - pleasure, amorous adventures, dice, dancin
drink - for what it is: "the distorted product of cautionary tales'".5 Or we
need to reconsider the chronology: Paul Grendler acknowledges that v
at Italian universities had always been a problem, but he argues that it b
more widespread and more lethal in the late sixteenth and the sevent
centuries.6 Clearly it would be useful to know whether or not levels of vio
at Italian universities reflect the general pattern of violence. But this
easy. A survey by Manuel Eisner of long-term trends in violent crime indi
that there were more murders and manslaughters in the Italian states
medieval period than in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
estimates that per annum there were fifty-six homicides per 100,000 o
lation in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and seventy-three in
fifteenth century. This fell to forty-seven in the sixteenth century and th
two in the first half of the seventeenth century. Despite the drop, accordi
Eisner these estimates contrast markedly with those in northern Euro
the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, there were averages of
and six in England, twenty-five and six in the Netherlands and Belgi
twenty-one and twenty-four in Scandinavia, and eleven in Germany
4 For example, in 1209 the hanging of two Oxford students for the murder or manslaughter of a wom
a migration of scholars and the foundation of the University of Cambridge; see Hastings Rashdall, The Un
of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1936; reprinted Oxford: Cl
Press, 1987), III, 33—4, 276. The comparative history of university violence remains to be written. Altho
development of student resistance is traced in Mark Edelman Boren, Student Resistance: A History of th
Subject (London: Routledge, 2001), this is only one aspect of university violence. For discussions of par
places and particular times, see Rashdall, The Universities, III, 353-85; R. L. Kagan, Students and Society
Modern Spain (Baltimore: Thejohns Hopkins University Press, 1974), 219; Carl I. Hammer, 'Patterns of
in a Medieval University Town: Fourteenth-Century Oxford', Past àf Present, 78 (1978), 1-23
Cassagnes-Brouquet, 'La violence des étudiants à Toulouse à la fin du XV et au XVI siècle (1460-1610) ', A
du Midi Toulouse, 94 (1982), 245-62; J. I. Catto, 'Citizens, Scholarsand Masters', inj. I. Catto (ed.), The Ear
Schools. History of the University of Oxford, I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), 151-93 (at 152-4, 1
Joachim Hahn, Education and Society in Germany. History of the University of Oxford, 1 (Oxford: Berg
58-60,68-9; Kristine Haugen, 'Imagined Universities: Public Insult and the Terraefilius'm Early Modern
History of Universities, 14/2 (2001), 1-31; Alexandra Shepard, Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern E
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 93-126; Rebecca Friedman, Masculinity, Autocracy
Russian University, 1804-1863 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005), 53-74; and Hannah Skoda, 'Student Vio
Fifteenth-Century Paris and Oxford', in Jonathan Davies (ed.), Aspects of Violence in Renaissance Europe
Ashgate, 2013), 17-40. For analyses of contemporary university violence, see Allan M. Hoffman, John
and Robert H. Fenske (eds.), Violence on Campus: Defining the Problems, Strategies for Action (Gaithersburg:
1998); Hank Nuwer, Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing and Binge Drinking (Bloomington
University Press, 2001 ) ; and Hank Nuwer (ed.), The Hazing Reader (Bloomington: Indiana University Pre
5 Trevor Dean, Crime in Medieval Europe 1200-1530 (Harlow: Longman, 2001), 114.
6 Paul F. Grendler, The Universities of the Italian Renaissance (Baltimore: Thejohns Hopkins Universi
2002), 500-01, 505.
506 Jonathan Davies
Switzerland. However, Gerd Schwerhoff has
notes the highly heterogeneous nature of E
that the judicial-normative basis in space an
Schwerhoff also argues that the statistical d
problems with measuring the basic total f
Moreover, the number of relevant analyses for
limited.8 Until more research has been cond
lence in the Italian states as well as on partic
one cannot draw conclusions on their relatio
FORMS
Violence and disorder at the Italian universities were both interpersona

collective. Insults, assaults, and murders involved both individuals and g
Collective conflict also included riots. Furthermore, professors as wel
students could be engaged in these activities, a point which is often o
looked in discussions of university violence and disorder. It should als
noted that one form of violence could evolve into another. For examp
duel in Siena in 1605 led to a joust and finally to a riot.9
Insult formed an important category of criminal offences, which wer
quently tried and punished with severe fines. This is unsurprising
honour was regarded as a significant symbolic and economic resource
had to be legally protected and publicly regulated.10 Verbal violence wa
7 Manuel Eisner, 'Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent Crime', Crime and Justice: A Review of Resea
(2003), 83-142 (at 97, 99). For homicide rates in the Italian states between the thirteenth and seve
centuries, see also Marvin Becker, 'Changing Patterns of Violence and Justice in Fourteenth- and F
Century Florence', Comparative Studies in Society and History, 18 (1976), 281-96; Guido Ruggiero, '
Punishment in Early Renaissance Venice', Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 69 (1978), 243-56; Sam
Cohn Jr., 'Criminality and the State in Renaissance Florence, 1344-1466', Journal of Social History, 14 (1
211-33; Mario A. Romani, 'Criminalità e giustizia nel ducato di Mantova alia fine del Cinquecento',
storica italiana, 92 (1980), 679-706; Sarah R. Blanshei, 'Crime and Law Enforcement in Medieval Bo
Journal of Social History, 16 (1982), 121-38; Peter Blastenbrei, Kriminalität in Rom, 1560-1586 (Tü
Niemeyer, 1995); Peter Blastenbrei, 'I romani tra violenza e giustizia nel tardo Cinquecento', Roma m
contemparanea, 5 (1997), 67-79; and Peter Blastenbrei, 'Violence, Arms and Criminal Justice in Papa
1560-1600', Renaissance Studies, 20 (2006), 68-87.
8 Gerd Schwerhoff, 'Criminalized Violence and the Process of Civilisation: A Reappraisal', Crime, Histo
Societies, 6/2 (2002), 103-26.
9 Archivio di Stato di Firenze [hereafter ASF], Mediceo del Principato [hereafter MdP] 1925, unfoli
Feb. 1605, r-v, r-v, r.
10 Eisner, 'Long-Term Historical Trends', 129. For honour in the Italian states, see: Frederic Rob
Bryson, The Point of Honor in Sixteenth-Century Italy: An Aspect of the Life of the Gentleman (New York: C
University Press, 1935); Giancarlo Angelozzi, 'Cultura dell'onore, codici di comportamento nobiliar
nella Bologna pontificia: un'ipotesi di lavoro', Annali delVlstituto storico italo-germanico in Trento, 8 (1982)
Francesco Erspamer, La biblioteca di Don Ferrante: duello e onore nella cultura del Cinquecento (Rome: Bulzoni,
Edward Muir, Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta in Renaissance Italy (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
1993); Sharon T. Strocchia, 'Gender and the Rites of Honor in Italian Renaissance Cities', in Judith C
and Robert C. Davis (eds.), Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy (Harlow: Longman, 1998), 39-60;
Povolo, L'intrigo dell'onore. Poteri e istituzioni nella Repubblica di Venezia nel Cinque e Seicento (Verona: Cierre
Marco Bellabarba, 'Honour, Discipline and the State: Nobility and Justice in Italy, Fifteenth to Seve
often a prelude to physical assaults.11 One of the most

occurred at the University of Florence, the Studio h
factionalism which engulfed Florence in the early 14
lence could result from academic involvement in polit
Francesco Filelfo was appointed to give public lec
cathedral and he used them to criticize his enemies, es
their friends. According to an eyewitness, one of th
earth to quake. The conflict came to a head on the mo
when Filelfo was attacked and his face was cut severe
studio. The rector, Girolamo Broccardi da Imola, was arrested and, under
torture, confessed that he had hired the assailant. However, Filelfo saw the
Medici as the prime movers behind the attack, a view which was supported by
Broccardi's fine being paid by Lorenzo de' Medici. After the return of the
Medici from exile in 1434, Filelfo fled to Siena, where he continued his attacks
upon them and their supporters. Following an attempt on his life in 1435,
Filelfo sent an assassin to Florence to kill Broccardi, Lorenzo de' Medici, and
Carlo Marsuppini, a close ally of the Medici and Filelfo's rival at the Studio
horentino. Filelfo was sentenced in absentia for this plot; if he were to return
to Florentine territory, his tongue was to be cut out.12
Centuries', in Heinz Schilling (ed.), Institutionen, Instrumente und Akteure sozialer Kontrolle und Disziplinierung im
frühneuzeitlichen Europa - Institutions, Instruments and Agents of Social Control in Early Modern Europe (Frankfurt am
Main: Klostermann, 1999), 225-48; Claudio Donati, 'La trattatistica sull'onore e il duello tra Cinquecento e
Seicento: tra consenso e censura', Studia Borromaica, 14 (2000), 39-56; Donald Weinstein, The Captain's Concu
bine: Love, Honor and Violence in Renaissance Tuscany (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001);
Marco Cavina (ed.), Duelli, faide e rappacificazioni: elaborazioni concettuali, esperienze storiche (Milan: Giuffrè, 2001 ) ;
Giancarlo Angelozzi and Cesarina Casanova (eds.), La nobiltà disciplinata: Violenza nobiliare, procedure di giustizia
e scienza cavalleresca a Bologna nel XVIIsecolo (Bologna: CLUEB, 2003) ; Marco Cavina, II duello giudiziario per punto
d'onore. Genesi, apogeo e crisi nelVelaborazione dottrinale italiana (secc. XIV-XVI) (Turin: Giappichelli, 2003); Trevor
Dean, 'Gender and Insult in an Italian City: Bologna in the later Middle Ages', Social History, 29 (2004), 217-31;
Marco Cavina, II sangue delVonore. Storia del duello (Bari: Laterza, 2005) ; and Trevor Dean, Crime andfustice in Late
Medieval Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 113-34. For honour in the Mediterranean
generally, see David D. Gilmour (ed.), Honor and Shame and the Unity of the Mediterranean (Washington: American
Anthropological Association, 1987); Claude Chauchadis, Honneur, morale et société dans TEspagne de Philippe II
(Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1984); Claude Chauchadis, La loi du duel. Le code du point d'honneur dans l'Espagne des
XVIe-XVIIe siècles (Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Mirail, 1997); and Various, 'Honour: Identity and Ambi
guity of an Informal Code (The Mediterranean, 12th-20th Centuries)', Acta Histriae, 9 (2000).
11 For assaults at the University of Bologna, the Studio bolognese, see Guido Zaccagnini, Storia dello Studio di
Bologna durante il Rinascimento (Geneva: Olschki, 1930) 73, 74, 193. For assaults at the University of Ferrara, the
Studio ferrarese, see Giuseppe Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese dall'anno 1409 sino al 1502; Appendice: Bernardino
Zambotti, Diario ferrarese dall'anno 1476 sino al 1504, 2 vols. (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1928-1937), I, 271 and II, 72.
For assaults at the Studio pavese, see Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 38. For assaults at the Studio pisano, see
Armando F. Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, 1473-1503: Richerche e Documenti, 6 vols. (Florence and Pistoia: Istituto
nazionale di studi sul Rinascimento and Olschki, 1973-2010), III.2, 912, 941; Davies, Culture and Power, 165-8;
and Jonathan Davies, Violence in Early Modern Italy. The Academic Environment (forthcoming). For assaults at the
University of Siena, the Studio senese, see ASF, MdP 1876, fol. 126v (formerly 124v), 13 Aug. 1584; ASF, MdP
1877, fols. 274r-5v (formerly 271r-2r), 7 Jan. 1586; Archivio di Stato di Siena [hereafter ASS], Capitano di
Giustizia [hereafter CdG] 613, without number but fol. 190v, 25 June 1598; ASF, MdP 1926, fols. 373r-84r, Jan.
1605; Peter Denley, Commune and Studio in Late Medieval and Renaissance Siena (Bologna: CLUEB, 2006), 291;
and Davies, Violence.
12 Jonathan Davies, Florence and its University during the Early Renaissance (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 84-5 and Diana
Robin, Filelfo in Milan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 17-20.
508 Jonathan Davies
Students and professors were also implicated
perpetrators.13 Indeed the most notorious cri
Bologna during the fifteenth century may ha
the rector of the Spanish College in October
who was a student in the college and a pupil o
the rector of the legists at Ferrara was murde
As noted, students also committed rape. In 1
the advocate fiscal, wrote to Francesco Sforza
officials in Pavia to restrain effectively the a
hesitate to break into houses and use violence
1479 the ducal commissary of Pavia met with
counsellors, and more than one hundred of the most illustrious students to
reprimand them for the disorders which had occurred in the city, especially
the cases of violence against young Pavia women.16 In 1604 German students
in Siena were accused of setting fire to the house of a widow whom they wished
to violate.17
Apart from insults, assaults, and murders, violence at Italian universities
included riots. In 1459 students in Perugia prevented the commune's priors
from making their annual visit to the Collegio Gregoriano, later called the
Sapienzavecchia. They incited all students to disrupt the feast of San t'Ercolano
and they paraded with muskets and other arms against the governor and the
bishop.18 In 1467 the German and Burgundian nations at Pavia came into
furious conflict. Counting students and their servants, five hundred
transalpines were said to have been involved.19 A full-scale revolt occurred at
Bologna in 1515. The students armed themselves and, with a drummer, their
banner and the rector, they marched first to the Piazza Maggiore, then to San
Marmolo, and finally to the monastery of San Domenico.20 Between twenty-five
and thirty masked students disrupted teaching at the Sapienza in Pisa in 1549,
forcing the professors to declare a vacation. The students were then attacked by
thirty to forty galley slaves carrying pieces of wood and batons.21 In 1560 another
riot at Bologna involved five hundred men, many of whom were armed, and it
13 For murders at the Studio bolognese, see Zaccagnini, Storia, 187-8, 190. For murders at the Studio
ferrarese, see Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, I, 31 and II, 71, 72, 73, 87, 200. For murders at the Studio pavese, see
Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 46, 60. For murders at the Studio pisano, see Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, III. 1,
432, 444-5; Davies, Culture and Power, 168; and Davies, Violence. For murders at the Studio senese, see ASS, CdG
648, fol. 275r, 25 Oct. 1605; ASF, MdP 1929, fols. 185-v, 190r, 21 Apr. 1606; Davies, Culture and Power, 168; and
Davies, Violence.
14 Zaccagnini, Storia, 74.
15 Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, I, 141.
16 Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 41. In 1404 Maddalena Conti and Lodovico Canevanova were attacked by
sixty men in Pavia, see Rodolfo Maiocchi (ed.), Codice diplomatico dell'Università di Pavia, 2 vols in 3 (Pavia: Società
Pavese di Storia Patria, 1905-15; reprinted Bologna: Forni, 1971-1972), II. 1, 49-50.
17 ASF, MdP 1925, unfoliated, 2 Sept. 1604, r-v; 3 Sept. 1604, r; 4 Sept. 1604, r-v; 7 Sept. 1604, r-v.
18 Giuseppe Ermini, Storia dell'Università di Perugia, 2 vols. (Florence: Olschki, 1971), I, 199-200.
19 Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 52.
21 Davies, Culture and Power, 168-9.
led to a siege of the Collegio San demente.22 In

forty-five benches in the Sapienza in Pisa and the
intervention of the official in charge of public orde
officers, the sbirri. The following year students set
benches of the Sapienza in Pisa and this time the r
commissary of Pisa as well as the bargello and the sbir
the Sapienza in Siena. In 1603 students barricaded it
was besieged by the bargello and a large number of sbir
to the Sapienza's fittings and in 1609 there were se
arms as well as noisy interruptions of teaching by s
above the lecture halls.23 Violence could also be ligh
members of the Ferrarese court attacked students w
were in their lessons. This led to three hundred students, masked and with a
drummer, marching on the court with more snowballs.24
MOTIVES
In his discussion of student violence in early modern Italy, Paul Gren

records the view of the governor of Padua, who wrote in 1609 that stu
were the worst transgressors because they had little sense and no prop
Either as outsiders or as natives supported by their families, they lacked a
of responsibility.25 Paolo Rosso has argued that there were in fact many ca
for the disorders which took place at the Studio pavese. However, he su
that they fall into a general dichotomy: disorders which can be defin
'common' (namely those caused by student goliardia, such as the moles
of women, offences like theft, or disrespect for ducal legislation) and
ders with 'political' overtones, which were those caused by the antipat
students belonging to different nations, or the riots that burst out i
studio's public moments, for example the election of the rector.26 Thi
useful thesis, which can be applied to other Italian universities. But b
doing so, it may be helpful to consider important underlying factors, n
the sense of identity as men, as students, as individuals of high social s
and as members of nations.
The part played by violence in the creation of masculinity has been wid
recognized by historians.27 Increasingly scholars are emphasizing the li
22 Gian Paolo Brizzi, 'Lo Studio di Bologna fra orbis academicuse mondo cittadino', in Adriano Prosperi (e
Bologna nelVetà moderna. II. Cultura, istituzioni culturali, Chiesa e vita religiosa (Bologna: Bononia University Pre
2008), 5-113 (at 61).
23 Davies, Culture and Power, 169.
24 Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, II, 84-5.
25 Grendler, The Universities, 500-01.
27 For useful introductions to this research, see Pieter Spierenburg (ed.), Men and Violence. Gender, Honor, and
Rituals in Modern Europe and America (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998) and Stuart Carroll (ed.),
Cultures of Violence: Interpersonal Violence in Historical Perspective (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007).
510 Jonathan Davies
between universities, violence, and the form

Ruth Karras:
the acquisition of masculinity [. . .] was primarily a matter of proving oneself

against others, [and] nowhere was this more true than in the single-sex environ
ment of the university [. . .] education was to give [a young man] the skills to
compete verbally against other educated men, to prove his superiority over the
uneducated [. . .] The universities developed their own model of masculinity,
distinct from the aristocratic knightly model although related to it [. . .] The
university had adopted the notion of masculinity as violent domination of other
men, but the violence was metaphorical, using words as weapons.28
The association of study and violence took several forms. As early as the
twelfth century some scholars were portraying study as a substitute for vio
lence; Peter Abelard declared that 'I preferred the weapons of dialectic to
all the other teachings of philosophy, and armed with these I chose the
conflicts of disputation instead of the trophies of war.'29 In addition, the
topos of the pen being mightier than the sword can be found during
the Renaissance; in 1479 Giovanni Franchi da Pistoia, a student at Pisa,
wrote to Lorenzo de' Medici, comparing studies with warfare.30 Finally, study
could be a precursor to violence. In 1567 another student at the Studio
pisano, Matteo Morteo, fought a duel with a knight of the Order of Santo
Stefano, arguing that he was ready to support his convictions with either
letters or arms.31
There were strong ties of solidarity that united all those who belonged to
the student-universities. This solidarity was shown in the defence of students
who had been arrested or expelled. For example, there was a riot in Bologna
when the rector of the ultramontane students was forced to leave the city.32 In
1476 a crowd of students liberated one of their companions who had been
detained by the Vicar of Pavia and in 1481 another crowd demanded the
release of a student who had been arrested for stealing from a Jewish citizen
of Pavia. When this was refused, the student was taken from the authorities by
force.33 Student solidarity was also shown when student privileges were chal
lenged, as we shall see. The group identity of students was recognized in the
28 Ruth Mazo Karras, From Boys to Men: Formation of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe (Philadelphia, PA: The
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 67-8, 91. For the adversarial nature of the disputation, see also Walter
Ong, Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981), 118-48 and
William J. Courtenay, Schools and Scholars in Fourteenth-Century England (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1987), 29-30.
29 Peter Abelard and Héloïse, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, trans. Betty Radice (Harmondsworth: Penguin,
2003), 3.
30 Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, III. 1, 462.
31 Del Gratta, 'Problemi giurisdizionali', 96.
Violence and, Italian universities 511
Middle Ages; Bartolo da Sassoferrato argued that an

student was an offence against them all.34
Many students were rich prelates or of noble or prin
they had a strong sense of their social status. It is unsurpr
identity led to violence since the upper class was to an
and its amusements consisted in fencing, jousts, and to
the carrying of arms as a mark of nobility probably
desire of students to be armed.35
Nationality frequently led to violence at Italian universities. There is some
evidence of fights between students from the Italian states.36 However, accord
ing to the known data, by far the most violence involved students from north
of the Alps. At Bologna, German students fought with various nations but
particularly with Poles.37 At Pavia, the Germans fought with the Parmigiani
and the Burgundians.38 Poles were troublesome in Siena, especially when they
carried guns.39 Yet the biggest threat to the peace in Siena were the German
students who frequently engaged in assaults, duels, brawls, and riots with the
Sienese, with men from the rest of Tuscany, and with Poles.40 The Germans
were said to be a bad example to the Italians and the authorities in Siena
complained to their superiors in Florence of the problems of justice that the
Germans caused.41
34 Bartoius, Commentaria in très libros Codicis (Lyons: [Denis de Harsy], 1549), lib. XI, L. cum scimus. C. de
agricolis & censitis', Zaccagnini, Storia, 77.
35 For the privileges of carrying arms, see Kibre, Scholarly Privileges, 47, 63-4; Osvaldo Cavallar, 'Ledere Rent
Publicam. Il trattato De portacione armorum attribuito a Bartolo di Sassoferrato e alcune quaestiones di Martino da
Fano', lus Commune, 25 (1998), 1-38; Denley, Commune, 234—5; and Davies, Culture and Power, 175-7.
36 For a fight between students from Pistoia and Prato, see Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, III. 1, 283 and III.2, 918.
For a fight between students from Ravenna and Mantua, see ASS, CdG 648, fol. 275r, 25 Oct. 1605. For a fight
between students from Lucca and Barga, see Davies, Culture and Potver, 171.
38 Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 51, 52.
39 See ASF, MdP 1891/1, fol. 190r (formerly 109r), 17 Mar. 1593; ASF, MdP 1890/1, fol. 464r (formerly 457r),
18 Mar. 1593; ASF, MdP 1919, unfoliated, r-v, 5 July 1601.
40 See ASS, CdG 613, fols. 107r-07v, 10 Dec. 1587; ASS, CdG 614, document 428 r-v, 7 Oct. 1599; ASF, MdP
1873/11, fols. 148r-9r (formerly 287a-7c), 11 Feb. 1576; ASF, MdP 1875/1, fols. 67r-7v (formerly 66r-6v) 21
May 1580; ASF, MdP 1875/1, fol. 68r (formerly 67r), 20 May 1580; ASF, MdP 1875/1, fol. 76r-6v (formerly
75r-5v), 4 May 1580; ASF, MdP 1875/11, fol. 112r (formerly 302r), 19 Sept. 1581; ASF, MdP 1879 (Oct. 87-Feb.
88), fols. 91r-lv (formerly 90r-90v) 27 Nov. 1587; ASF, MdP 1881/1, fols. 69r-69v (formerly 32r-2v); ASF, MdP
1891/1, fol. 120r (formerly 75r), 19 Oct. 1592; ASF, MdP 1891/11, fol. 36v (formerly 317v) 9 Oct. 1592; ASF,
MdP 1902, fol. 59r-9v, 5 July 1597; ASF, MdP 1912, unfoliated, 13 July 1599; ASF, MdP 1919,15 Sept. 1601, r-v,
r; ASF, MdP 1925, unfoliated, 11 Aug. 1604, r-v, 23 Aug. 1604, r, 5 Mar. 1605, r; ASF, MdP 1926, fols. 292r-3v,
16 Mar. 1604, 339r-40r, 2 Aug. 1604, fol. 344r, 3 Aug. 1604, fols. 345r-6v, 17 Aug. 1604, fols. 360r-5r, 3 Aug.
1604, fol 394r-v, 28June 1604, fols. 420r-v, 432r 8 (?) Mar. 1604, fols. 422r-v, 431r-v, 3 Mar. 1604, fol. 450r-50v,
2 Aug. 1604, fols. 451r-v, 452r-v, 454r, Aug. 1604; ASF, MdP 1929, fols. 185-v, 190r, 21 Apr. 1606; ASF, MdP
1930, fol. 32r-2v, 20 Mar. 1607, fol. 39r, 21 Apr. 1606, fols. 117v-8r, 18 Apr. 1606, fol. 139r, 24 Apr. 1606, fol.
141r-v, 25 Apr. 1606, fol. 142r, 24 Apr. 1606, fols. 143r-^4v, 24 Apr. 1606; Davies, Culture and Power, 175.
41 ASF, MdP 1889/1, fol. 295r-v (formerly 168r-v), 24 Aug. 1592; ASF, MdP 1892/11, fols. 455r, 456r
(formerly 500r, 501r), 4 July 1594; ASF, MdP 1901/1, fols. 151r-2r, 16 Dec. 1595; ASF, MdP 1902, fol. 59r-v, 5
July 1597; ASF, MdP 1930, fols. 143r-4v, 23 Apr. 1606.
512 Jonathan Davies
Among the catalysts of violence at Italia
egorized as 'common', we find clashes wit
fights with men-at-arms and knights,43 the
jousts,48 and theatrical performances.49 'P
universities included attacks on the privi
universities,60 the rivalry between the stu
rectors and their counsellors,52 and appoin
student lectureships.63 As we have seen wi
external politics could also involve profess
RESPONSES
Grendler attributes part of the responsibility for the violenc

student-universities which, he believes, 'exerted little disciplinary au
indeed, they engaged in practices that made matters worse'. He also
that the local governments 'hesitated to confiscate swords and g
to crack down on student violence'.54 But this is not the whole
The authorities responded to the violence with a range of measures
could relent and be lenient but there were important reasons f
tolerance.
42 ASF, MdP 1877, fol. 194r-v (formerly 191r-v), 24 Sept. 1584; ASF, MdP 1883/1, fol. 363r-v (formerly
262r-v), 23 July 1590; ASF, MdP 1887/1, fol. 112r (formerly 33r), 10 Aug. 1592 (?), fol. 117r-v (formerly
37r-37v), 10 Aug. 1592, fols. 126r-127r (formerly 65a-65c), 10 Aug. 1592, fol. 212r (formerly 97r), 13 Aug.
1592, fols. 250r-lr (formerly 118a-c) 10 Aug. 1592; ASF, MdP 1881/1, fol. 429r-v (formerly 426r-v), 20 Aug.
1592; ASF, MdP 1891/1, fol. 223r (formerly 128r), 29 Aug. 1592; Zaccagnini, Storia, 188-90; Rosso, 'Vicende
studentesche', 41-2; and Davies, Violence.
43 ASS, CdG 614, unfoliated, 23 Feb. 1601, r; ASS, CdG 647, fol. 434r-v, 9 Aug. 1599; ASF, MdP 1924,
unfoliated, 1 (?) June 1603, r, 31 May 1603, r-v, May 1603? r-v, 26 May 1603. r-v, r, 23 May 1603, r-v, r; ASF,
MdP 1936, fol. 170r-v, 24 July 1609; Davies, Culture and Power, 166-7, 172-3.
44 Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, II, 44; Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, III. 1, 432, 494, 497; III.2, 738.
45 ASF, MdP 1876, fol. 126v (formerly 124v), 13 Aug. 1584; ASF, MdP 1891/1, fol. 473r, 11 Sept. 1595.
46 ASF, MdP 1882, fol. 375r (formerly 173bis r), no date [1588 or 1589?]; ASF, MdP 1930, fol. 206r-206v, 16
June 1606; ASF, MdP 1935, unfoliated, r-v and r, 26 May 1609; Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, I, 131; and Davies,
Culture and Power, 155, 169, 170, 173.
47 ASF, MdP 1871/11, fol. 9r, 8 Feb. 1564, fol. lOr-lOv, 10? Feb. 1564, fol. llr, 11 Feb. 1564, fols. 247r-8v, 21
July 1566; ASF, MdP 1870, fols. 3r-4r, 9 Mar. 1565; ASF, MdP 1922, unfoliated, r-v and r, undated [1601 or
1602?], r-v, r; Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, II, 84—85; Zaccagnini, Storia, 72-3, 185; Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, IV,
46, 332, 656-8, 770-2, 792-3, 883, 1025, 1068, 1106-07, 1193, 1424; Giuliano Catoni, 'II carnevale degli
studenti: Feste e spettacoli degli studenti senesi dal XVI al XVIII secolo', in Scritti per Mario delle Piane (Naples:
Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1986), 23-37 (at 35); Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 42; Denley, Commune, 294-5;
Davies, Culture and Power, 155-6, 170, 174.
48 ASF, MdP 1925, unfoliated, r-v, r-v and r, 29 Feb. 1605, Ermini, Storia, I, 199-200, 330-331; Zaccagnini,
Storia, 77-78, 174.
49 ASF, MdP 1925, unfoliated, r-v, r-v and r, 29 Feb. 1605.
50 Ermini, Storia, I, 199-200; Zaccagnini, Storia, 187; Brizzi, 'Lo Studio di Bologna', 61; Davies, Culture and
Power, 169.
51 Zaccagnini, Storia, 174-5 and Brizzi, 'Lo Studio di Bologna', 39.
52 Zaccagnini, Storia, 67, 75, 76, 171 and Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 52-4.
53 Zaccagnini, Storia, 55, 66.
54 Grendler, The Universities, 503, 505.
Violence and Italian universities 51S
The responses of the student-universities to violen

given the loss of most of their records. However, sour
and we find the rector there investigating, trying
violence.55 Rulers took a close interest in the violence which occurred at the
universities in their territories; the Pope, the Duke of Ferrara, the Duke of
Milan, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the Venetian Senate were all
informed of incidents and responded to them, as did their political and
judicial representatives.56 If necessary, the powers of judicial officials were
increased temporarily to deal with particular situations.37 Sometimes these
officials were criticized for being overzealous in their punishments of students
and professors.58 Troops were deployed, especially when there were riots.59
Students were occasionally tortured.60 Homicides were punished by execution
or by fines if they occurred in brawls ('in rissa').61 Violent students were also
expelled from the respective city for months, for years, or for life.62 Attempts
were made periodically to restrict the carrying of arms.63 There were also bans
on the wearing of masks which, hiding identity, encouraged crimes.64 At Pavia,
ducal officials sometimes met with the student body and its representatives to
55 A rich and apparently unique source is the records of the court of the rector at the Studio pisano from 1543
to 1808, the Tribunale dello Studio. The evidence from 1543 to 1609 (Archivio di Stato di Pisa, Università di
Pisa, primo deposito, 1794-8) will be analysed in my forthcoming monograph, Violence in Early Modern Italy. The
Academic Environment. For the responses to violence of the rectors at Pisa, see also Davies, Culture and Power,
171-3.
56 For the Pope, see Ermini, Storia, I, 200; Zaccagnini, Storia, 190; and Brizzi, 'Lo Studio di Bologna', 60-61,
105. For the Duke of Ferrara, see Pardi (ed.), Diarioferrarese, I, 271-2 and II, 49, 72 and Girolamo Secco Suardo,
Lo Studio di Ferrara a tutto il secolo XV (Ferrara, 1894; reprinted Bologna: Forni, 1983), 91. For the Duke of Milan,
see Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 47-9, 51. For the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, see Davies, Culture and Power,
172-7 and Davies, Violence. For the Venetian Senate, see Relazioni dei rettori veneti in Terraferma, 14 vols. (Milan:
Giuffrè, 1973-1979), IV, 114-5.
57 For example, the ducal officials in Pavia received extra powers from the Duke of Milan, see Maiocchi, Codice
Diplomatico, II. 1, 217-28, 242-5 and Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 47-9.
58 In 1563 the Sienese Balia told Cosimo I that the capitano went too far and in 1603 the governor of Siena
had to overrule the capitano when he sought to imprison and torture the rector, see Davies, Culture and Power,
174-5.
59 Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, I, 271-2; Ermini, Storia, I, 199-200; Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 42; and
Zaccagnini, Storia, 187.
60 Davies, Florence, 85; Maiocchi, Codice Diplomatico, II.2, 454-5; Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 48; and Davies,
Violence.
61 For executions for homicide, see ASS, CdG 648, fol. 275r, 25 Oct. 1605, fol. 348r-v, 12 Aug. 1606, fol.
546r-v, 6 June 1603; Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, II, 72, 73; Zaccagnini, Storia, 74; and Davies, Violence. For fines
for homicides committed 'in rissa', see ASS, CdG 645, fol. 358r-v, 11 Aug. 1575; ASS, CdG 648, unfoliated, 3
Sept. 1603; and Davies, Violence. This differentiation was in line with the statutes of Siena, see ASS, Statuti di
Siena 51, distinzione 111a, fol. 34r.
62 ASS, CdG 647, fol. 715r, Dec. 1602; Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, II, 72; Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, III.2, 724;
Denley, Commune, 335-7; and Davies, Violence.
63 ASF, MdP, 1877, fol. 151r (formerly 150r). 3 June 1584; ASF, MdP 1935, unfoliated, 10 Feb. 1609, r-v, r;
Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, Vol. 2, 49; Alessandro Gherardi (ed.), Statuti délia Università e Studio fiorentino delVanno
1387, seguiti da un'appendice di documenti dal 1320 al 1472 (Florence, 1881; reprinted Bologna: Forni, 1973), 181;
Denley, Commune, 234-5; Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 51; Zaccagnini, Storia, 187, 190; Davies, Culture and
Power, 175-8; and Davies, Violence.
64 Pardi (ed.), Diario ferrarese, II, 131,162, 356; Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 42; and Zaccagnini, Storia, 190.
514 Jonathan Davies
reprimand them for violent acts. In 1603 the
were required to apologize in person to the B
between Germans and Sienese.66
But although the authorities took steps to deal with violence at the Italian
universities, they could also be lenient. In 1560 Christoph Kress, a student
from Nuremberg, argued that papal legates in Bologna had closed their eyes
to student transgressions.67 The grand dukes of Tuscany indulged German
students in Siena. Ferdinando I was particularly well disposed towards the
German nation, ordering the officials there to give it every possible satisfac
tion, to treat it lovingly and with respect, and to punish severely anyone who
offended it.68 The leniency of rulers was revealed most clearly in allowing
students to carry arms, often to the frustration of the local political and
judicial authorities.69 In 1598 the German nation in Siena requested a licence
to bear arms for Giovan Maria Magognino da Padova, a fencing master who
had been recommended by the German nation in Padua.70 This is not so
surprising since fencing was a popular pastime for students at the Italian
universities; Montaigne's reports on his visits to Padua and Bologna both
begin with records of the fencing schools there.71
The toleration of violence can be explained. The most important factor is
the economic significance of the students. In 1602 it was estimated that,
between food, clothes, and teachers (Tra vitto, vestiti, e maestri') the
German nation alone contributed 500 scudi a day to the economy of Siena.72
To put this in perspective, the annual budget of the Studio senese in 1602
was 2,600 florins or about 2,400 scudi, meaning that for every scudo spent
on the studio, the German nation paid about 65 scudi into the Sienese
economy.73 The level of the student economic contribution in Siena may
have been unusual but other cities were also reliant on income generated by
65 Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 41, 44-6.

66 ASF, MdP 1925, unfoliated, 20 Mar. 1604, r; ASF, MdP 1926, fols. 418r-v, 434r, 16 Mar. 1604.
67 Brizzi, 'Lo Studio di Bologna', 60, 101.
68 Danilo Marrara, Lo Studio di Siena nelle riforme del Granduca Ferdinando 11589 e 1591 (Milan: Giuffrè, 1970),
139. For the different treatment of Germans and Italians in Siena, see also ASF, MdP 1871/1, fol. 44r (formerly
17r), 6 Apr. 1578.
69 For Bologna, see Zaccagnini, Storia, 75, 187. For Pisa, see Davies, Culture and Power, 176-7. For Siena, see
ASF, MdP 1892/1, fol. 353r-v (formerly 175r-v), 20 May 1594; Denley, Commune, 234-5; and Davies, Culture and
Power, 175-6.
70 ASF, MdP 1908, fols. 253r-v, 27lv, 6 Aug. 98.
71 Michel de Montaigne, Journal de voyage, ed. Fausta Garavini (Paris: Gallimard, 1983), 160, 172.
72 ASF, MdP 1923, unfoliated, r, 18 July 1602. It is likely that the author's, Ippolito Agostini's, judgment on
this matter is reliable. He had been a member of the Concistoro of Siena in 1601, see ASS, Concistoro,
Deliberazioni 1312 (1 Jan. 1600-21 June 1601). His father Marcello had been a capitanoand famigliareof Cosimo
I. Marcello and Ippolito were both knights of the Order of Santo Stefano. Ippolito was a collector of antiquities
and a patron of the arts and letters, see Roberto Bartalini, 'Siena medicea: l'Accademia di Ippolito Agostini',
Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia, 25 (1995), 1475-530, and Roberto Bartalini,
'Su Alessandro Casolani e ancora sull' "accademia" di Ippolito Agostini', Prospettiva, 87-88 (1998), 146-56.
73 For the budget, see Davies, Culture and Power, 97. For the exchange rate, see Carlo M. Cipolla, Money in
Sixteenth-Century Florence (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989), 27-31, 62.
students. The authorities also dealt carefully wit

political power they possessed. Between 1479
studied at the Studio pavese, accompanied by a l
masked) retinue. Alberto and his servants caused
the murder of a student in 1480, but they went
Duke of Milan did not wish to antagonize the Est
of their economic and political significance an
exodus when they were challenged.76 Exoduse
1519 and 1562 and at Siena in 1563.77 Finally
responses of the authorities, we should recognize
also shaped by the lack of police forces in the
period. Officials had to rely on handfuls of sbir
occasionally by troops.78 An indication of the gr
the record of executions in Bologna: 'On 26 April
hanged in the Ringhiera at 23 hours for having
previous day thrown a stone at students, and thi
in the city, fifteen thousand students being ther
The authorities could also be constructive, sett
about peace. Less attention has been paid to this a
known. Disputes were resolved in various ways: w
dent or suspect students or professors had to tak
there were threats of penalties for those wh
differences.80
74 For Bologna, see Zaccagnini, Storia, 189, 193. For Pavia, see Rosso
Perugia, see Ermini, Storia, I, 200.
75 Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 54-60.
76 Sottiii, 'II palio', 91; Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 44-5, 50; Brizzi, '
administrators of the Studio asked the podestà of Pisa not to execu
dissolution of the studio, see Verde, Lo Studio fiorentino, III. 1, 101-2.
77 For Bologna, see Zaccagnini, Storia, 190 and Brizzi, 'Lo Studio d
Culture and Power, 174.
78 For the use of troops, see n. 59. For the control of public order, se
(eds.), Corpi armati e ordine pubblico in Italia (XVI-XIX sec.) (Soveria Ma
79 Quoted in Zaccagnini, Storia, 188-9: 'A 26 aprile 1560 Vitorio sbiro f
avere il giorno scorso a l'ora stessa getato un sasso alii Scolari, e ciô fu f
essendo Ii Scolari da 15 milla.' No precise information for enrolmen
estimates that there may have been 2,000 students there in the mid
Universities, 19.
80 Denley, Commune, 337. For peacemaking at Pisa, see Verde, Lo Stud
431, 434-5, 440, 470, 493-4, III.2, 638, 855, 888; Davies, Culture and P
peacemaking at Siena, see ASS, CdG 613, fol. 19r-v, 8 Mar. 1581, fol. 25r
7 July 1578, fol. 640r, 28 July 1578, ASF, MdP 1875/11, fol. 115r (forme
unfoliated, 26 May 1603, r-v, r; ASF, MdP 1925, unfoliated, 11 Aug. 160
fol. 278r-v, 18 Mar. 1604, fols. 306r-307r, 14 Mar. 1604, fols. 330r-v, 33
Mar. 1604; Denley, Commune, 337; and Davies, Violence. For processes of
10 and also Christine Shaw, 'Peace-Making Rituals in Fifteenth-Century
225-39, and Lucien Faggion, 'La violence négociée', in Lucien Fagg
violence. Regards croisés sur une réalité plurielle (Paris: CNRS Editions, 20
516 Jonathan Davies
CONCLUSION
In 1460 leading Florentine political figures held a debate to dis

the university should be in Florence or in Pisa. According to G
Pitti, 'if men are urged to set it up because it will be useful and hon
the city, how much more becoming to establish it at Florence th
Pitti's view was shared by Bernardo Gherardi: 'I submit that we
every effort to ensure that this studio should be brought into being
will be useful for many people and a cause of honour for the c
arguments won the day and it would not be until 1472 when, to
political standing of Lorenzo de' Medici, most of the university
moved from Florence to Pisa.83 As contemporaries recognized,
brought money and prestige to a city. As almost all centres of highe
in the Italian states were located in subject rather than in capi
utilitas et honor brought by a university were particularly importan
offset the perennial dangers of interpersonal and collective vi
universities posed.84
University of Warwick
81 Gene Brucker, 'A Civic Debate on Florentine Higher Education (1460)', Renaissance Qu
517-33 (528): 'Nam si icerco [sic: idcirco] ad illud fiendum incitantur homines quoniam ut
erit civitati, quanto satius est ac decentius illud magis Florentie quam Pisis constituere.'
82 Brucker, 'A Civic Debate', 533: 'Unde omnino dandam operam censeo, ut Studium
futurum utile multis et honorificum civitati.'
83 Davies, Florence, 125-42.
84 For the significance of the location of universities, seej. K. Hyde, 'Universities and Cities in Medieval Italy',
in Thomas Bender (ed.), The University and the City from Medieval Origins to the Present (New York and Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1988), 13-21.

Violence Italian Universities Renaissesance

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Violence Italian Universities Renaissesance

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Violence and Italian universities during the Renaissance

Author(s): Jonathan Davies

Violence and Italian universities d

) 2013 The Author

Violence has always played a part in the development of universi

Violence and disorder at the Italian universities were both interpersona

often a prelude to physical assaults.11 One of the most

led to a siege of the Collegio San demente.22 In

In his discussion of student violence in early modern Italy, Paul Gren

between universities, violence, and the form

the acquisition of masculinity [. . .] was primarily a matter of proving oneself

Middle Ages; Bartolo da Sassoferrato argued that an

Grendler attributes part of the responsibility for the violenc

The responses of the student-universities to violen

65 Rosso, 'Vicende studentesche', 41, 44-6.

students. The authorities also dealt carefully wit

In 1460 leading Florentine political figures held a debate to dis

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